Ronda and I went to visit Eliana in El Maiten the other day. The day was quite nice, so we decided to take advantage of the weather and hike up to the top of the hills behind her house. As it happens, there is a "Via Crucis" there. For those ignorant of Catholic doctrine, the Via Crucis (Way of the Cross) consists of 12 stations of the cross, each station representing some supposed significant happening between when Jesus was sentenced to death to when he died. Normally you see it in the cathedrals, each station is a painting, and there's only about 10 metres between each one. The faithful go from station to station and say their Ave Marias etc, especially around Easter time. Some bright spark has put a Via Crucis up this mountain, with each station going up the hill till you reach the twelfth right at the top. Quite a handy indicator as to how much further you have to go!! Ronda and I used them to mark whose turn it was to take the backpack...each turn was two stations of the cross then we changed over :-).
There is a look-out point about a quarter of the way up, that was the second station of the cross.
Forgot to mention the most important fourth member of the climbing party - Rocco the 6-month old poodle! Up till a month ago, he was banished to the boiler room of the house where he lived, as his previous owner bought him, but then realised they didn't really have the room or time for dogs, so there he stayed, always dying to rush out and run into the house! His owner's cousin Eliana bought him and now he has a new life. Here he valiantly went in the lead on the way up and all the way back, seems to have boundless energy!
The wind was so bitter up here, poor Eliana was underdressed, so we stayed about 30 seconds!
This is the view of where we went from Eliana's kitchen window. Just above the roof of the two-story house you can make out a tree on the hill-side, that's the first look-out we stopped at.
Then we continued up the gully and to the top.
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